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Oh my goodness. It seems that Heinrich's greatest gift to his nation was his death!

Haha, hey, he did add a grand total of ONE more province during his sixty year reign than in his death! Althought to be fair, he got the PU and conquered one of the inherited provinces for Brandenburg as well.

With France a mess (and you to blame for that continuing) and Brandenburg inherited, Brunswick has gone from being fairly secure to the dominant power in north Germany. Added to that your new model army is a serious threat to any would-be aggressor.

Bohemia is still extremely strong and they have decent alliances to boot. And I dislike the fact that they're allied with Austria, I wouldn't want to risk my alliance by putting the Emperor in a position where they have to choose one. Not that Austria is that useful, but I like having that ally around for RP reasons, especially since they're an honorable nation and we have a high level of trust.

But you're right that no-one else really worries me at this point. France's fate might depend on their ability to get rid of the religious turmoil and/or the excommunication soon: as it stands, their RR is giving them a lot of trouble with that nasty combination.

Shame about losing the dynasty, but Rudolf looks to be another capable diplomat, which seems to be the qualification necessary to rule Brunswick.

It's an absolutely mandatory qualification. The monarchy will most likely be discontinued the moment I get a low DIP king.

Seems that I shouldn't be getting too fond of my ruling families - if you count heirs and the Frisian PU, I've had people from five different dynasties hanging around my throne in 130 years of gameplay. Imagine getting that in Yamato Destiny, it wouldn't have been pretty for you!

I'm guessing those stab-hitting events are balanced by all your cores giving you a quick recovery time.

Yes, stab hits are currently next to inconsequential.

Originally Posted by Omen

Yes! An update and a good one. The ending was bittersweet. With the ending of one dynasty we saw an expansion to Brunswick land and power.

I did like the rational behind not colonizing. Very gentlemanly.

Thanks a lot. Yeah, Brunswick's dynasties are dropping like flies in this game...

Originally Posted by Athalcor

I think that was a great epitaph of the Mark dynasty.

Btw, do you have a core on Riga as well?

Thanks! Fortunately yes, Riga is Prussian and therefore same culture group. I find it an interesting, fun addition. Posting some troops there will stretch my army a bit thin, but having disconnected holdings to look after brings a new dynamic.

Originally Posted by no7892142

That's some cores for Germany won, but an Elector lost.

Happy to see you updating again!

Good to hear. Yeah, I'm starting to be large enough that I could handle Emperor's duties so it's bad to lose electors. But on the other hand, with this rule set I really have to take what I can get, and I still have better relations with electors than others do in general. If I really start going for the Imperial crown, the bribing shouldn't be too hard.

Hmmmm... about the natives of America, the truly gentlemanly thing to do would be to teach them some good manners. And allow them to become the citizens of the Brunswick Empire.

I am however quite happy that you decided to stay an open-minded Catholic. Destroying monasteries and statues of saints is not a very civilised thing to do, even if most of your people support it. And allowing an odd missionary earn a living, as long as he does it in a respectful manner, won't hurt either.

Hmmmm... about the natives of America, the truly gentlemanly thing to do would be to teach them some good manners. And allow them to become the citizens of the Brunswick Empire.

Oh but we aren't ones to judge them by their manners! Maybe shake our head when no-one's watching, but not judge!

I am however quite happy that you decided to stay an open-minded Catholic. Destroying monasteries and statues of saints is not a very civilised thing to do, even if most of your people support it. And allowing an odd missionary earn a living, as long as he does it in a respectful manner, won't hurt either.

Hehe, I would have changed if that "most of the people support it" part ever became true. When the conversion events started to become noticeably rarer, Catholicism was still clearly number one, even if it is my capital and the surrounding areas that support the other denominations. There were some conversions, but Pro and Ref went pretty much 50-50 so neither got a good number of provinces. I believe I started converting stuff back a bit more a decade or two down the line (still limited for RP reasons, but not the "one province at a time" I'm running at this point). I figured that if it isn't close in a couple of decades since the start of reformation, it isn't worth waiting any longer.

Originally Posted by Avindian

Glad to see this return (or perhaps I am the one who returned; I think I follow way too many AARs! ) Very interested to see if you can become Emperor; that would be a mighty feather in your cap.

Yeah, there was that accidental one month delay... I think my plan is to support Austria as long as they can keep the crown as we're getting along nicely. Should someone else grab the title, I might enter the competition.

Originally Posted by Facit

Wonderful, to have another update. This inheritance makes Brunswick look much better. Also, you should now be an elector, right?

It does, doesn't it? Looking more like a proper North German power.

And okay, you obviously know something that I don't. Yes, we become an elector but I didn't know it in advance. Has it to do with inheriting one?

Originally Posted by blsteen

Inheritance and new dynasty.
Bohemia might be a pain soon again but we'll just have to see

They are most definitely a constant problem. And one that we must deal with directly at some point, seeing that they own a province that's required for Germany.

technically, you could justify colonization, just not colonial conquest. Take the event that gives you either trade or says let them be. Then, you could play it off as you being a tolerant colonizer who lets the natives be. You could say you did this in horror at the way the other colonial masters were treating the natives.

Yes, inheriting an elector makes you take their seat, unless you already have one of course.

I don't remember if you already did that, but is it ungentlemanly to claim thrones/forge claims? You could easily do that against Bohemia to grab that province along with the rest of their realm. Just check for low legitimacy in the ledger (below 50 unlocks forging claims).

technically, you could justify colonization, just not colonial conquest. Take the event that gives you either trade or says let them be. Then, you could play it off as you being a tolerant colonizer who lets the natives be. You could say you did this in horror at the way the other colonial masters were treating the natives.

But there is a good chance of native uprisings. Such situations would be hard to paint as benevolent.

Besides, I don't intend to make exceptions to the "no owning uncored land" rule.

Originally Posted by Facit

Yes, inheriting an elector makes you take their seat, unless you already have one of course.

Okay thanks, always good to learn something new about this game (rare these days!).

I don't remember if you already did that, but is it ungentlemanly to claim thrones/forge claims? You could easily do that against Bohemia to grab that province along with the rest of their realm. Just check for low legitimacy in the ledger (below 50 unlocks forging claims).

Again, no owning provinces without cores. Inheriting Bohemia would give me a boatload of non-cores as they have next to no German culture group lands.

Claiming thrones is viewed as ungentlemanly, forging claims not necessarily (I used it on Brandenburg to get the PU initially). However, as per the house rules I've gotten rid of spies altogether by this point. I'm not ruling out getting them again via the Espionage NI, but using them to fabricate claims would be a last resort.

You've become a powerhouse. Congrats! I expect a kind of rivalry between you and Austria over hegemony in central Europe. Ah, almost forgot there's still Bohemia... cunningly allied to you both! The rivarly might be so much more interesting then! Any chances or plans to become Prussia?

Alright, the previous update was a long time coming so let's get this one up a bit quicker to make up for it!

Originally Posted by gabor

You've become a powerhouse. Congrats! I expect a kind of rivalry between you and Austria over hegemony in central Europe. Ah, almost forgot there's still Bohemia... cunningly allied to you both! The rivarly might be so much more interesting then! Any chances or plans to become Prussia?

Thanks. You're probably mixing up Bohemia and Austria. Bohemia is the powerhouse - with which there is a proper rivalry - while Austria is a relatively weak but well-behaving Emperor whose alliance with Bohemia is indeed a problem. I want to stay friends with the Austrians because, well, it adds another fun goal, but also because they're playing an honorable game. So I need to turn the Austrians against the Bohemians somehow.

Prussia, which had previously felt impossible, now has an outside chance of being feasible with the Riga inheritance. However, it would require some lucky boundary disputes, changing the capital AND changing the state culture. I might attempt that in a pure gameplay AAR with no RP goals, but it feels a bit gamey for this one.

The Danish King was opposed by a variety of Brunswicker noble families with German roots. The resistance movement needed legitimacy, so the figurehead and prospective king ended up being Ernst Ferdinand Opp, a distant cousin of current court employee Philipp Magnus and deceased war hero Julius.

This choice of leader turned out to be a mistake. While going for name recognition might have seemed like a good idea at first, Opp's weak leadership and limited military proficiency caused many prospective rebels to stay loyal to the crown, and the resulting small army was crushed within a month of Rudolf August I's ascendancy. While the King still had a lot of work to do in order to boost his legitimacy, the direct threat proved to be easy enough to handle.

Longer term help was needed as well. The death of treasurer Eickenroth left an empty seat in Brunswick's court, and Grand Marshal August Franz Wassman was hired to deal with the legitimacy issues.

The process was slow, however, and the King still felt the heat. Rudolf August knew his history: Heinrich III, too, had been questioned early in his reign by those seeking to abolish the monarchy, but had let his diplomatic talents prove his worth. The new King decided to take a page out of his predecessor's book and quickly convinced many Saxon nobles that, with an aggressive Bohemia lurking across the border, they'd be safer under a strengthened Brunswick.

Others in Saxony were more difficult to persuade, but Rudolf August didn't let that slow him down. In April, he successfully claimed that the province of Kurland should have also been a part of his Baltic inheritance, at the present only consisting of Riga.

War would have to wait until Saxony's integration, but preparations were quickly started anyway. Troops were shipped to Riga and more were trained, while regimental camp construction began in the Brandenburger provinces.

Despite trouble from unruly nobles during the summer, the King held the course and continued the negotiations with the Saxons. This bore fruit in December as the province of Leipzig was annexed peacefully.

With two electors in Brandenburg and Saxony integrated within a year, the Holy Roman Empire was in need of new ones, and the Austrian Emperor chose his ally Brunswick for that position. Rudolf August was surprised by the lack of fanfare. In fact, no-one even saw fit to tell him before he started looking into Imperial matters himself - perhaps another sign that he wasn't universally well received.

Brunswick's elector support was quickly given to the trusted Austrians.

The Saxony situation was over, certain domestic reforms in the Brandenburg area were complete, and troops were in position. Everything was ready for a declaration of war on Sweden in January 1530.

General Friedrich Wilhelm Hehn was promoted to fight the Swedes, while lower officers were allowed to handle the nuisance that was Wurzburg.

They proved to be quite successful as the small nation was forced out of the war in less than a month, adding eighteen ducats to Brunswick's coffers.

In the main theater, a small detachment quickly moved to defeat the tiny Swedish force in Livland and siege that province. The bulk of Hehn's troops marched to Kurland, where they defeated a large army led by the Swedish king Erik XIII.

The king's army retreated into Ostpreussen. Hehn decided that following was too dangerous and stayed in the north instead, crushing a smaller 5000 man force led by general Liljencrantz in two battles around Samogitia.

These adventures turned out to be risky as well: when Erik XIII's army started moving up the coast towards the small siege force in Kurland in May, Hehn was stuck fighting Lithuanian rebels that had moved to Samogitia from Muscovy's territory right after Hehn's victory against Liljencrantz.

In this precarious situation, Brunswick's armed forces showed their decisiveness. Hehn defeated the rebels in record time, while the outnumbered troops in Kurland miraculously held their ground. When the main army arrived in Kurland in June, the Swedes were no match for the stronger Brunswicker forces.

Erik XIII had no choice but to retreat back to Memel, where a chasing Hehn forced the surrender of his army.

By July, Sweden's holdings in the region were under siege: Ostpreussen by Austria, the rest by Brunswick. With no enemy troops left in the vicinity the war seemed to be a matter of waiting, so Rudolf August again turned his attention to diplomacy.

After the Brandenburger inheritance and the earlier annexation of Lübeck, Mecklenburg was now completely surrounded by Brunswick, their only route out of Rostock being the politically tumultuous Baltic Sea. In such a situation, it was possible to convince several important Mecklenburger characters that Brunswicker rule would be beneficial.

Adding Mecklenburg - a Bohemian ally - to the nation seemed like a worthy future military goal, but the Swedish war had to be concluded first. Kurland fell in August, and wresting it from a defeated Sweden was a simple matter.

Rudolf August I had scored his first military triumph, an important accomplishment in his quest for acceptance.